Change and Continuity: Adaption of Persons Working in the Secondary Sector During the Period of Socio-Economic Reforms in the 1990s in Estonia

"The aim of this paper is to analyse the interrelationship between the structural changes and personal destinies of people who worked in the secondary sector at the beginning of the transition period. The focal question is whether structural and institutional changes were brought about by a minimum of adaptations and fluctuations or a by maximum of turbulence and mobility. The paper is based on indepth interviews conducted in 2003 and 2004 with people who graduated from secondary educational institutions in 1983 and belong to the so-called ‘winners’ cohort. One of the pivotal results of the analysis is that when companies were winding down and being reorganised, it launched processes of intercompany workers’ displacement and lead to their imminent unemployment. Individuals changed their plans and behaviour because they had to adapt. Opportunities proved to be less a matter of individual control and planning, than of unfavourable structural conditions. A work place in the secondary sector often worked as a ‘push’ factor for mobility during the reforms, as massive layoffs and restructuring in the economy did not leave any other choices for people than to start looking for new possibilities. In spite of some attempts to set up businesses, the majority of former industrial workers belong to the same occupational group and are working in the same sector, even 15 years after the reforms. This means that the relative occupational ranking of the workers remained the same despite the change in the political and social order." (author's abstract

Change and Continuity: Adaption of Persons Working in the Secondary Sector During the Period of Socio-Economic Reforms in the 1990s in Estonia

The aim of this paper is to analyse the interrelationship between the structural changes and personal destinies of people who worked in the secondary sector at the beginning of the transition period. The focal question is whether structural and institutional changes were brought about by a minimum of adaptations and fluctuations or a by maximum of turbulence and mobility. The paper is based on indepth interviews conducted in 2003 and 2004 with people who graduated from secondary educational institutions in 1983 and belong to the so-called ‘winners’ cohort. One of the pivotal results of the analysis is that when companies were winding down and being reorganised, it launched processes of intercompany workers’ displacement and lead to their imminent unemployment. Individuals changed their plans and behaviour because they had to adapt. Opportunities proved to be less a matter of individual control and planning, than of unfavourable structural conditions. A work place in the secondary sector often worked as a ‘push’ factor for mobility during the reforms, as massive layoffs and restructuring in the economy did not leave any other choices for people than to start looking for new possibilities. In spite of some attempts to set up businesses, the majority of former industrial workers belong to the same occupational group and are working in the same sector, even 15 years after the reforms. This means that the relative occupational ranking of the workers remained the same despite the change in the political and social order

Individual Planning or Adaptation: Personal Destinies of Non-Estonians in the Period of Socio-Economic Reforms of the 1990s in Estonia

The aim of this paper is to analyze the interrelationship between structural changes and personal destinies of non-Estonians. How do non-Estonians who have grown up in a socialist system and have finished their education in the late 1980s or early 1990s experience a societal transformation? Were structural and institutional changes brought about by a minimum of adaptations and fluctuations or a by maximum of turbulence and mobility? How successful were they in converting resources gained in the old system into other types of assets in post-socialist conditions? The paper is based on in-depth interviews conducted in 2003 and 2004 with non-Estonians graduating from secondary educational institutions in 1983 and belonging to the so-called “winners” cohort. One of the central results of the analysis is that non-Estonians’ behaviour was not so much directed by purposeful biographical projects but rather it could be characterized as an adaptation to new circumstances. Opportunities proved to be less a matter of individual control and planning than of unfavourable structural conditions. Our analysis indicated the stability of relative rankings in social hierarchy despite the huge amount of job moves. It was evident that having only higher education did not guarantee non-Estonians a stable position in the labour market. Broad social network helped to realize this resource

Social Risks and Challenges of the Post-Socialist Transition Period in Estonia: Analysis of Biographical Narratives

In research on social risks and insecurity qualitative methods have obvious advantages and successfully complement statistical quantitative approaches, which have been practiced for decades. This study is based on the thirty-two in-depth interviews collected in the period June 2003 to January 2004 for the project “Life Plans and Life Paths in the Post-Socialist Estonia.” The interviewees are representatives of the so-called “generation of winners”, i.e. the people aged 20 or 30 years at the beginning of the period of post-socialist reforms. The paper examines representations of social risks and challenges of the transition period in the biographical interviews as well as discursive patterns and strategies that interviewees use to produce relatively coherent biographical narrative

Individual Planning or Adaptation: Personal Destinies of Non- Estonians in the Period of Socio-Economic Reforms of the 1990s in Estonia

©2 20 00 05 5--2 20 00 07 7 Q Qu ua al li it ta at ti iv ve e S So oc ci io ol lo og gy y R Re ev vi ie ew w V Vo ol lu um me e I II II I I Is ss su ue e 2 2 w ww ww w. .q qu ua al li it ta at ti iv ve es so oc ci io ol lo og gy yr re ev vi ie ew w. Abstract The aim of this paper is to analyze the interrelationship between structural changes and personal destinies of non-Estonians. How do nonEstonians who have grown up in a socialist system and have finished their education in the late 1980s or early 1990s experience a societal transformation? Were structural and institutional changes brought about by a minimum of adaptations and fluctuations or a by maximum of turbulence and mobility? How successful were they in converting resources gained in the old system into other types of assets in post-socialist conditions? The paper is based on in-depth interviews conducted in 2003 and 2004 with non-Estonians graduating from secondary educational institutions in 1983 and belonging to the so-called "winners" cohort. One of the central results of the analysis is that non-Estonians' behaviour was not so much directed by purposeful biographical projects but rather it could be characterized as an adaptation to new circumstances. Opportunities proved to be less a matter of individual control and planning than of unfavourable structural conditions. Our analysis indicated the stability of relative rankings in social hierarchy despite the huge amount of job moves. It was evident that having only higher education did not guarantee non-Estonians a stable position in the labour market. Broad social network helped to realize this resource

Social Risks and Challenges of the Post-Socialist Transition Period in Estonia: Analysis of Biographical Narratives

Qu ua al li it ta at ti iv ve e S So oc ci io ol lo og gy y R Re ev vi ie ew w V Vo ol lu um me e I IV V I Is ss su ue e 2 2 www.qualitativesociologyreview.org 1 10 06 6 Q Qu ua al li it ta at ti iv ve e S So oc ci io ol lo og gy y R Re ev vi ie ew w Abstract In research on social risks and insecurity qualitative methods have obvious advantages and successfully complement statistical quantitative approaches, which have been practiced for decades. This study is based on the thirty-two in-depth interviews collected in the perio

International Social Survey Programme: National Identity III - ISSP 2013

Questions on national consciousness and national identity. Topics: Identification with the town or the city, the region (county), the country, and with the respective continent; most important characteristics for national identity; identification with one´s own nation and national pride (scale); level of personal pride in the way democracy works in the country, its political influence in the world, the country´s economic achievements, its social security system, its scientific and technological achievements, its achievements in sports, the achievements in the arts and literature, the armed forces, its history and equal treatment of all social groups in society; attitude towards the relations between one´s country and other countries (scale: limitation of the import of foreign products in order to protect the national economy, the right of international institutions to enforce solutions to be accepted nationally (eg. environment pollution), enforcing national interests regardless of evoking conflicts with other countries, rejection of the acquisition of land by foreigners, preference for national films in national television stations); attitude towards selected statements: damage done by large international companies to the local businesses; free trade leads to better products becoming available in the country; in general the country should follow the decisions of international organizations, even if the government does not agree with them; international organizations are taking away too much power from the country; feeling more like a citizen of the world than of the country; attitude towards minorities: fully assimilation is impossible for people who do not share country´s customs and traditions; ethnic minorities should be given government assistance to preserve their customs and traditions; preference for assimilation of minorities or retention of their identity; attitude towards immigrants (scale); attitude towards the number of immigrants in the country; immigrants should retain their culture of origin and not adopt country´s culture versus also adopt country´s culture, versus should give up their culture and adopt country´s culture; national pride; attitude towards patriotism (strengthens country´s place in the world, leads to intolerance in the country, is needed for the country to remain united, leads to negative attitudes towards immigrants); respondents citizenship; citizenship of parents at the time of the respondent´s birth. Optional questions for countries with an appropriate regional association: knowledge of the regional association like the EU or NAFTA; benefits from EU-membership (NAFTA, etc.); country should follow EU (NAFTA, etc.) decisions, even in the case of disagreement; attitude towards a powerful EU-government; preference for a future EU-membership of the country (for prospective EU members only); country should remain a member of the EU (current EU members only). Demography: sex; age; year of birth; years in school; education (country specific); highest completed degree; work status; hours worked weekly; employment relationship; number of employees; supervision of employees; number of supervised employees; type of organization: for-profit vs. non profit and public vs. private; occupation (ISCO-88); main employment status; living in steady partnership; union membership; religious affiliation or denomination (country specific); groups of religious denominations; attendance of religious services; top-bottom self-placement; vote in last general election; country specific party voted in last general election; party voted (left-right); self-assessed affiliation of ethnic group 1 and 2 (country specific); number of children; number of toddlers; size of household; earnings of respondent (country specific); family income (country specific); father´s and mother´s country of birth; marital status; place of living: urban – rural; region (country specific). Information about spouse and about partner on: work status; hours worked weekly; employment relationship: supervises other employees, occupation (ISCO-88); main employment status. Additionally encoded: date of interview; case substitution flag; mode of data collection; weight

International Social Survey Programme: Work Orientations IV - ISSP 2015

Attitude towards work. Work orientation. Conflict and social exclusion. Subjective experience of job. Work satisfaction. Non-standard employment. Work life balance. Job and working flexibility. Human capital. Outcome of work. Employability, new job. Topics: work centrality (a job is just a way of earning money vs. would enjoy having a paid job even if the money is not needed); importance of selected demands of a job like job security, high income, etc. (work values); work life balance: willingness to give up good job opportunities for the benefit of the family; willingness to remain in a job that is not satisfying for the benefit of the family; conflict and social exclusion: experience of discrimination with regard to work, for instance when applying for a job; main reason for the discrimination; experience of harassment at the workplace by superiors or co-workers (for example bullying, physical or psychological abuse); solidarity and conflict with regard to trade unions (workers need strong trade unions to protect their interests vs. strong trade unions are bad for the country´s economy); preferred employment arrangements (full-time, part-time, less than 10 hours a week, no paid job at all); currently working for pay (employment status); preference for more work (and money) or for reduction in working hours (work longer hours and earn more money, work the same number of hours and earn the same money, or work fewer hours and earn less money); characteristics (social dimension) of own job; subjective experience of job: frequency of hard physical work and stressful work; non-standard employment: frequency of working at home during the usual working hours and working on weekends; job and working flexibility concerning starting and finishing times; non-standard employment: usual working schedule in the main job; job and working flexibility: organisation of daily work (free decision, decision within certain limits, no free decision); work life balance: difficult to take an hour off during working hours to take care of personal or family matters; demands of the job interfere with the family life and the demands of family life interfere with the job; human capital: usefulness of the abilities learned from past work experience for the present job; job training over the past twelve months to improve job skills; judgement on the relations between management and employees and the relations between workmates/ colleagues (working atmosphere); outcome of work: work satisfaction in the main job; identification with firm or organisation; occupational commitment (would change the present type of work for something different, proud of the present type of work); employability/ new job: expected difficulties in finding a new job at least as good as the current one; likeliness of job search in the next twelve months; worried about the possibility of losing own job; job and working flexibility: accepted concessions to avoid unemployment (acceptance of a job that requires new skills, acceptance of a lower paid position, acceptance of temporary employment, longer travel to reach the place of work, movement within the country, movement to a different country); existence of a side job in addition to the main job; earning from the additional job(s) in total compared with the main job. Respondents who are not currently employed were asked: ever worked for pay for one year or more; month and year the last paid job ended; work satisfaction in the last job; main reason for the end of last employment; interest in finding a paid job; expected difficulties in finding a new job; worried about the possibility of not finding a job; accepted concessions in order to get a job (acceptance of a job that requires new skills, acceptance of a lower paid position, acceptance of temporary employment, longer travel to reach the place of work, movement within the country, movement to a different country); job seeking activities in the past twelve months and training to improve own job skills; currently looking for a job; main source of economic support; worried about the possibility of losing this main economic support. Optional items: recent work histories: ever worked for pay over the past five years; experience of selected changes in working life (unemployment for a period longer than three months, change of the employer, change of the occupation, started own business/ became self-employed, took up an additional job); self-assessment of current financial situation; change of current financial situation compared to five years ago; expected financial situation in five years; attitude towards senior citizens´ work (good for the country´s economy, employed people aged 60 and over take jobs away from younger people). Optional background variable: self-assessment of physical and mental health. Additional compulsory background variable: age of the youngest child in the household. Demography: sex; age; year of birth; years in school; education (country specific); highest completed degree; work status; hours worked weekly; employment relationship; number of employees; supervision of employees; number of supervised employees; type of organisation: for-profit vs. non profit and public vs. private; occupation (ISCO-08); main employment status; living in steady partnership; union membership; religious affiliation or denomination (country specific); groups of religious denominations; attendance of religious services; top-bottom self-placement; vote in last general election; country specific party voted in last general election; party voted (left-right); self-assessed affiliation of ethnic group 1 and 2 (country specific); number of children; number of toddlers; size of household; earnings of respondent (country specific); family income (country specific); father´s and mother´s country of birth; marital status; place of living: urban – rural; region (country specific). Information about spouse/ partner on: work status; hours worked weekly; employment relationship; supervises other employees; occupation (ISCO-08); main employment status. Additionally encoded: respondent-ID number; date of interview (year, month, day); case substitution flag; mode of data collection; weight